24 week appointment

Short version: things are awesome.

Long version: things are really, really awesome.

Blood pressure is awesome, weight is awesome, Val is very pleased with my diet and exercising habits, and she found Sea Monkey's heartbeat on the doppler right away. Things are good. =)

Val is predicting that Sea Monkey is a little boy, based on the heartbeat. =) Zach is predicting a ninja, and I'm predicting adorable.

One of the things we asked about was what we should do to have a back up plan set up, in case home birth is no longer an option (like if I develop pre-eclampsia, or something happens during labor that we decide isn't safe for the home birth). Val said to figure out which hospital we'd want to go to, and mentioned a few with doctors that she'd worked with or had talked to. She also said that usually when their (the midwives') clients transfer, it's generally a few days/weeks before labor begins, rather than transferring during labor. There's still that chance that we'll need to transfer during labor, but it's pretty small, and no matter what happens, we're going to be prepared. But she's not worried. So I'm just going to relax and pray that things continue on this trend of awesomeness. =)

We also asked about pediatricians, and she gave us a few recommendations for doctors who would be more inclined to actually listen to us, rather than just try to push whatever on us. Zach and I do our research and we'll know exactly why we're delaying vaccines or whatever we decide to do, and we want a pediatrician who's going to respect that, rather than have this "I'm the doctor, you have to listen to me, I have all the experience, you're fools if you disagree with me etc." attitude. So we have some recommendations so we can get started and figure out what to do there.

At my next appointment (June 15th), Val is going to do a finger-prick blood test and see if I'm anemic. Also at the next appointment is the glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. Val said that an hour before the appointment, I should be finished eating a regular meal, but with carbs (I looooooove carbs). And since my blood sugar is going to be tested by actual food, that means I don't have to drink the nasty sugar drink doctors' offices make you drink! I was very excited about that. I had been reading a bit about the test and found that while GD can pop up in anyone, there are certain factors that make it a bit more likely to happen, and I don't think I had any of those. But the test will let us know, and if I am having issues, I'll need to really keep track of my diet, and we'll go from there. But Val's not worried, based on how my weight has been and the fact that I'm getting exercise, and the general healthy look I seem to have. We'll be talking about birth plans, too, and oh my goodness, I'll be in the third trimester then. Whoah.

Continuing with this very long post, just a brief update on our first childbirth class this past Saturday. There are about 8 couples in the group and I think Zach and I are the youngest couple there. Val was the instructor, so it was nice for me to be able to have that familiarity and trust with her. Each of us wrote down our fear(s) about childbirth, and Val and another of the midwives (Kim) took turns responding to those fears. It was really encouraging. After that, we talked a bit about nutrition (Zach and I realized I'm not really getting enough Omega-3's, which help with Sea Monkey's brain development. So after the class, we stopped by the natural food store across the street and got a bottle of flax oil. Zach tried it straight, assured me I wouldn't enjoy it, and so I've been mixing it with salad dressing, like the bottle recommends, and just eating it with my salad every day). During the last part of the class, we practiced a relaxation technique, which was pretty much just systematically going through the body and sort of becoming aware of the senses there.

And that's everything. =)